recensioner / reviews
"The Swan Woman mixes it's real-life darkness with images that have a power of their own. Two narratives and worlds co-exist. /.../ A physical performance that’s full of mingled determination and delicacy, becoming beautiful in a fall of white feathers."
Alice Saville, Exeunt Magazine
(Iceland - Reykjavik Fringe Festival 2019)
"The Reykjavík Fringe Festival is currently at it's peak and among the more interesting performances on it's agenda is the Swedish show Svankvinnan, ie. The Swan Woman"
(Iceland - Reykjavik Fringe Festival 2019)
"It's like art theatre and an HBO true crime documentary had a fascinating baby!"
Jonathan Duffy / @jonoduffy
(Iceland - Reykjavik Fringe Festival 2019)
"Such a beautiful show with an endlessly intriguing story. Stunning visuals mixed with documentary style audio. So fascinating. A must!"
Dan Ireland-Reeves / @ireland_reeves
(Iceland - Reykjavik Fringe Festival 2019)
"Fringe festivals are driven by their inner wills and can, despite their soluble structure, provide strong, composite experiences. The Swan Woman, Rebecka Pershagen’s solo performance, is such a piece. /.../ With pre-recorded interviews and a silent physical enactment, Pershagen gives the image of a living, complex woman behind the news headlines. Well done, sensous and moving fringe art."
Lis Sveningson Hellström, Göteborgs-Posten
(Sweden - Gothenburg Fringe Festival 2018)
"Despite the bombastic music with all it’s dramatic effect, I find myself surrounded by an inner silence as I peek through a window, into an apartment in Stockholm, and see this woman, this real woman who has lived, sitting on a chair, folding paper swans. Rebecka Pershagens portrait of and tribute to The Swan Woman Marie hits you right in the heart."
(Sweden - Gothenburg Fringe Festival 2018)
"Rebecka Pershagen not only emphasizes The Swan Woman's social efforts as an animal caretaker in her interesting, content-rich and beautiful performance, which also tells how the beautiful swan through the ages has had different symbolic meaning.”
Ann-Marie Wrange, Tidningen Dans
(Sweden - Stockholm Fringe Festival 2018)
"A completely different tone was the one of Rebecka Pershagen's piece The Swan Woman, already recognized at several other festivals. /.../ The piece gave no explanations, but instead gave way to the mystery of the story. It became a wordless movement towards beauty, a beautiful gesture, where the slow pace was part of the point."
Ann-Christine Snickars, Åbo Underrättelser
(Finland - FIN Fringe Festival 2019)
"Swedish artist Rebecka Pershagen's piece The Swan Woman is a stage portrait of a person behind the headlines. The mysterious case is examined in the performance, with the help of a sound collage, while the artist presents the metamorphosis from human to animal. The gradual deformation of a woman who folds paper swans in her loneliness is like a modern, albeit tragic, true-to-life tragedy, as described by H. C. Andersen from his fairy tale. /.../ The human-centered grip is only challenged by the sounds of swans and water in the sound collage. The pairing is an effective expression of our culture-penetrating relationship with nature, and raises many ethically charged questions about our ways of approaching animals."
Mia Hannula, Turun Sanomat
(Finland - FIN Fringe Festival 2019)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
”Fringe-festivaler drivs av sin inre vilja och kan trots sin lösliga struktur ge starka, sammansatta upplevelser. Svankvinnan, Rebecka Pershagens soloföreställning, är en sådan. /.../ Med inspelade intervjuer och tyst fysisk gestaltning ger Pershagen bilden av en levande, komplex människa bakom nyhetsschablonen. Välgjord, sinnlig och berörande fringekonst.”
Lis Sveningson Hellström, Göteborgs-Posten (2018-08-27)
”Trots den bombastiska musiken med all sin dramatiska effekt finner jag mig omgiven av en inre tystnad när jag kikar in genom ett fönster, in i en lägenhet i Stockholm, och ser denna kvinna, denna riktiga kvinna som har levt i verkligheten, sittandes på en stol, vikandes papperssvanar. Rebecka Pershagens porträtt av och hyllning till svankvinnan Marie träffar rätt i hjärtat.”